


Heart

by TheRavenintheMoon



Series: Long Lost Souls [24]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 18:36:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12965850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRavenintheMoon/pseuds/TheRavenintheMoon
Summary: Moving on is never easy. A little forgiveness from beyond the grave might just be the only way to let go.





	Heart

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little tag that follows "Flesh, Blood, and Bone." I think that fic stands pretty well on its own, but I also wanted to give Kalyna and Maryk a little closure. If you also are interested in closure, read on. If not, that's why I dropped this in a separate fic. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I own only my characters. Blizzard owns everything else.

_**Heart**_  
 _ **Kalyna and Maryk**_  
  
Stiff fingers wrapped too tight around the pen, scrawling unsightly lines and blotches across the page. She would have cared, once, at this sign of imperfection. But she had invested all the emotion she could stomach for the time being into the words on the page. She had no irritation to spare for appearances.  
  
 _ ~~Husband~~ Maryk,_  
  
 _I find it hard to believe ~~that you are still~~ that you would have allowed your brother to travel north to fight in this war. I, perhaps rashly, asked him not to speak to you of me. Of my (blotch) current condition. They tell me ~~that you~~ that I am cold. If so, I do not feel it, anymore now than I did before, though I suppose that now it is a literal thing. There are some ~~death~~ like me who fight with ice in their veins. I cannot. _  
  
_I used to think that I was far too righteous, walked too boldly in the Light, to fall to so simple a vice. But now I see, Maryk, that you, in your peaceful heart, in your quiet stance, were stronger than I ever was. You glow with Light in my memory, something soft. I used to think, in our worst moments, that it was weakness. But my desire to be—(blotch)—more. Ah, I thought I burned with righteous fury when all I burned with was hate. I am almost ashamed to admit to you that it is hate that sustains me now. I—(a long smear of ink)._  
  
 _You have not come north. I know. I checked. I think I understand. I desire revenge. You desire ~~to forget~~ an end. Once I would have thought you weak. But you do not stay away in fear. You stay away because you cannot neglect the duty to which you have set yourself. Who will protect hearth and home while the world packs up and plays soldier? The least I can do for you, in the spirit of what we once were, is to ensure your brother makes it home. Perhaps, in this one thing, I will not fail you who has never failed me._  
  
 _Shine bright, Maryk. Forget what we once were. We cannot go back. I daresay there is something warm ahead of you, some light I cannot see. Let me burn, Maryk. I am but ashes in the wind._  
  
 _Kalyna_  
  
__________________  
  
Maryk shed no tears over the stained and crumpled letter the Northrend courier had left for him. He might, once, have been distraught to learn that his wife’s sacrifice had damned her. But the letter merely confirmed what his brother’s earlier missive had already detailed. Kalyna, and surely that was her signature, was beyond his reach. For the first time, he let his memory of her step down from the pedestal where it had too long dominated his thoughts. Her sacrifice had festered—it occurred to him that it was no longer his wife he mourned. Sorrow had become a habit, and he had long made a fool of himself. She was right, after all. They had been falling apart long before he had lost her, and he had regretted only that he had lived while she lay dead. _What a stupid thing_ , he thought, _to mourn the living_.   
  
He packed his things, leaving a note for his guard captain. “Forgive me, Vindicator, but it has occurred to me that there are things worth fighting for. I am not sure if I will return from Northrend. As such, I would ask that you distribute what weapons I have left behind to those recruits who need them most. Light bless and keep you, Maryk.”  
  
The borrowed hippogriff was a steady animal. As it winged its way towards Shattrath and the portal back to Azeroth, it barely flinched as Maryk allowed the ashes of Kalyna’s letter to stream away behind him.


End file.
